AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The Knicks have earned their new handle — Team Titanic.
This 2013-14 disaster keeps getting worse, but at least the nation didn't have to see this latest fold. The Knicks, after their bumbling start Sunday in Chicago, were ready for this contest from the opening tip with a new starting lineup that included Amar'e Stoudemire and J.R. Smith.
The Knicks opened a 14-point lead and of course Team Titanic proceeded to blow it and get creamed by the stumbling Pistons, 96-85, before a very sparse crowd at The Palace. The 11th-place Knicks lost their seventh straight to fall 19 games under .500 at 21-40, pretending to be in a playoff race, 6 ½ games out of the eighth seed.
The Pistons are in ninth and broke a four-game losing streak in holding the Knicks to 38.6 percent shooting.
There were no posters trying to entice Carmelo Anthony to leave the Knicks — as there was in Chicago on Sunday, when the Knicks were blown out for the third straight game on national TV — but anyplace is better than being a Knick nowadays as Mike Woodson carries on as a dead-man walking head coach. The Pistons already tried to right their ship and fired coach Maurice Cheeks last month. They are now led by interim John Loyer.
Stoudemire and Smith replaced Iman Shumpert and Pablo Prigioni in Woodson's now rotating starting lineup.
Anthony and Stoudemire combined for 50 points, with Anthony scoring a team-high 28 and Stoudemire adding 22 on 9 of 11 shooting.
But the starting backcourt of Raymond Felton and Smith was horrendous. Before Smith got hot late in the fourth quarter, they were a combined 1 of 19 shooting, with Smith going 0 of 10.
Smith hit some shots late and finished 5 of 17 for 16 points. Felton finished with four points, his shooting woes since the gun-charge arrest reaching alarming proportions.
"Right now, we're searching, we're trying to find combinations,'' Woodson said at The Palace, where he once won a title as an assistant coach to Larry Brown.
Tyson Chandler, fresh off a 22-rebound game, added 18 more rebounds, but that was no match for the 26 grabbed by Pistons center Andre Drummond.
The Knicks' first Team Titanic of this century was captained by Brown, who shipwrecked the franchise in guiding it to a 23-59 record in 2005-2006, setting the franchise record for most starting lineups.
Team Titanic II was the Isiah Thomas-coached club of 2007-008 which started training camp in Charleston, S.C. with Thomas still in court fighting sexual harassment charges. They also wound up 23-59.
Team Titanic III, captained by Anthony, just might have hit the iceberg with the most force when you consider the high expectations and the notion the captain may abandon the ship for calmer waters this summer. In addition, the lottery pick from the expected non-playoffs finish will be shipped to Denver in one of the best, top-heavy drafts in years — the last indignity to the Anthony blockbuster trade from the Nuggets.
The Knicks led after 10 minutes, 25-11, when a Stoudemire-Prigioni pick-and-roll led to a Stoudemire flying dunk.
Anthony and Stoudemire combined to shoot 7 of 9 in the first period and they had help from the reeling Pistons. Greg Monroe took a pass underneath, was wide open but fumbled the ball out of bounds. Later, Drummond tipped the ball into his own basket after a Knicks' miss.
But as it's been all season, it went awry. Felton made a costly turnover on an interception that led to a fast-break Pistons' bucket by Josh Smith that put them within 38-34. The Knicks led just 44-39 at halftime.
The Pistons went up 57-52 midway through the third period as Drummond swept past Stoudemire on a driving layup, got fouled and converted the three-point play.
After Anthony had the ball stolen, the Pistons scored on a fast break with 8:00 left as Will Bynum fed an alley-oop to Monroe for a dunk with the Knicks failing to get back. Anthony committed a charge and Bynum scored on a driving layup to put the Pistons up 13.
It got worse late in the fourth quarter. Bynum stripped Felton at halfcourt and sailed in for a layup for an 88-71 bulge.
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